-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Turns out that Bruce Springsteen 's scribblings were worth more than the auctioneers imagined .

An anonymous $ 197,000 bid won Thursday 's auction for handwritten lyrics to Springsteen 's 1975 hit song `` Born to Run . '' The purchase was part of a `` Fine Books and Manuscripts including Americana '' auction at Sotheby 's auction house in New York .

The starting bid was $ 40,000 , and Sotheby 's had expected the manuscript , which features 30 lines and marginal notations scrawled in blue ink , to fetch between $ 70,000 and $ 100,000 .

`` Born to Run '' reached only No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 , but it aged well , earning the No. 21 spot on Rolling Stone magazine 's list of all-time greatest songs and being named among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 's 500 songs that shaped the genre .

Springsteen explained the song 's birth in a statement issued by Sotheby 's . He wrote the lyrics in his Long Branch , New Jersey , home in early 1974 , after releasing two albums that gave him little commercial success .

`` One day I was playing my guitar on the edge of the bed , working on some song ideas , and the words ` born to run ' came to me , '' Springsteen said . `` At first I thought it was the name of a movie or something I 'd seen on a car spinning around the circuit . I liked the phrase because it suggested a cinematic drama that I thought would work with the music that I 'd been hearing in my head . ''

The 1975 track became Springsteen 's first worldwide release . Sotheby 's said that although many of the original lyrics never made it to the recording booth , the chorus was `` nearly perfected '' in the handwritten manuscript .

CNN 's Eliott C. McLaughlin and Luisa Navarro contributed to this report .

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Sotheby 's auction house had anticipated final bid between $ 70K and $ 100K

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Springsteen 's ` Born to Run ' notes went to auction Thursday

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Springsteen said he wrote lyrics in early 1974 ; it became his first worldwide release